T.S. Stumpf
Abstract:
This research used 25 interviews with hotel operators to explore the strategic practices hotel businesses use to effectively operate in developing Pacific Island destinations. Four islands in the Federated States of Micronesia were used as the research setting, and data were collected and analysed using a grounded theoretical approach. The core conceptual category which emerged to explain and understand the requisite strategic practices for surviving the languid tourism context of these islands is dubbed multifaceted hotel diversification (MHD). The MHD model proposed and discussed is comprised of three conceptual sub-dimensions: guest market diversification, hotel property diversification, and industry diversification. These findings contribute to the extremely scarce body of hotel research in Pacific Island destinations, and as such have implications for entrepreneurs, business development policy and training, and future research in this little understood part of the world.
Keywords: Hotel strategy, multifaceted hotel diversification, Pacific Island countries, tourism